Bloodeagle: An Arnold Landon Mystery - Hardcover

Lewis, Roy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312104316 ISBN 13: 9780312104313

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1994

Synopsis

Assigned to oversee the excavation of a medieval site in the English countryside, Arnold Landon soon finds himself investigating a series of murders that are the work of a modern-day Viking warrior

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

A diffuse and unconvincing plot, sketchy character development, a villain clearly discernible to the reader, though not to the cast, and a dry dissertation on the Viking way of vengeance sink this latest offering from a prolific British author. Archeologist Arnold Landon, last met in A Secret Dying , must abandon his working-vacation plans with bookstore owner and romance novelist Jane Wilson, when his boss sends him on a dig for medieval artifacts at Birley Thore. At the same time, vinegary Detective Chief Inspector John Culpeper has had to cut short his vacation to investigate a horrible murder at South Middleton. Eventually, Landon and Culpeper will meet, as they have before, and neither will trust the other, a dynamic that proves nearly fatal for Landon. By then we will have learned that someone with a knowledge of Viking customs has killed at least four persons in England and abroad, each time carving up the body in the "bloodeagle" signature of Viking berserkers. In addition, the killer may have been associated with a unit of the Small Boat Services, a close-knit British commando squad which was ambushed in an operation five years earlier. This is an overwrought, humdrum offering from Lewis, many of whose other tales have been crisply plotted.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Arnold Landon, the author's quiet medievalist-sleuth (A Secret Dying, etc.), plays a modest role here, leaving the spotlight to Durham's Detective Chief Inspector Culpeper, his aide Inspector Farnsby, and the bizarre murder they're trying to solve. The victim is farmer James Lloyd, killed by a single bullet but mutilated in a way suggesting some bloody ritual, the letters GODAR nearby. There's a resemblance to an earlier killing in Suffolk of mayor Michael Jenkins and, as it transpires, to two murders in Europe. Lots of research, the piercing of some official secrets, and a brief education in Norse folklore finally uncover a common thread among the victims. Meanwhile, Landon's promised vacation from his job with the Morpeth Department of Museums and Antiquities has been canceled. He's been assigned to help a project in the village of Birley Thore, where imminent road-widening threatens an unexplored site possibly containing Roman ruins. Culpeper's and Landon's objectives meet dramatically at that site, bringing to a climax one of Lewis's best efforts. A mix of the exotic and the plebeian, clumsy at times but engrossing most of the way. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0312104316
• ISBN 13: 9780312104313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1